Amrish Rau, Co-Founder, CitrusPay & Angel Investor

#100xEntrepreneur #Podcast with Amrish Rau, Co-founder at Citrus Pay, Head of Investments & Partnerships at PayU“Life is Game, Treat it as a Sport, Enjoy your time in the Field, & It will be Fantastic!” - Amrish RauAfter starting his career as a Sales Manager at Siemens Nixdorf in 1996, he later worked extensively with Teradata & First Data. He later started Citrus Payments in 2014, which was acquired by PayU for $130Mn in 2016, one of the biggest FinTech deals in India.As an Angel Investor, his Portfolio Companies are - CRED, Khatabook, Signzy, and OPEN Bank among others.In this podcast, Amrish shares his deep insights of the FinTech space in India & opportunities coming ahead.Notes - 00:56 - How did he grow from a Sales Manager at Siemens to one of the renowned names in Indian Fintech Space?05:20 - How does he treat his work life?06:36 - His experience of Investing in CRED, Mobile Premiere League, Khatabook, Dunzo & Bira 13:28 - Formation of Citrus Pay14:42 - Seeds of Entrepreneurship17:55 - First few years of Citrus Pay - Testing the Market19:26 - His thoughts on Business Capital requirement & Funding21:45 - “You should not tie your dreams to - How much funding I can raise?; Instead, think of - What problem statement can I solve?”23:11 - Pivots v/s Experimentation & Improvisation24:32 - Core Unsolved problems in FinTech for B2C & B2B27:15 - Will Startups in Credit Lending Space be able to make money?28:24 - Credit Lending opportunities in SMEs30:23 - Cost of money is extremely high through NBFCs31:37 - Other Markets he’s interested in - Transactions & eKYC32:52 - “The number of Quality founders, I meet every day, I’m soon going to end up broke being an Angel Investor.”35:26 - Preparation for the Big War in FinTech 37:33 - Advice to listeners - “Spend time in understanding the complexity of FinTech”44:45 - No.1 Golden Rule for a Cofounder is to put the Company First

Anand has worked with some top companies in SaaS & Product roles - Yahoo, Airtel, Snapdeal, Freecharge, Facebook & currently at Five9.

Since 2014 he has been an Angel Investor in over 50+ companies, some of the popular one’s being - Yulu, Khatabook, and MoEngage among others.

In this podcast, Anand shares his experience of building consumer-friendly products & becoming a successful Angel Investor.

Notes - 01:10 - Journey of one of the best product thinkers in the country - Entrepreneur in SaaS (2001-2008), Multiple Product Leadership Roles across few of the best companies in the world 2008 - Present (Airtel, Snapdeal, Facebook, Five9) and now an investor in startups 2016-Present (Rupeek, Khatabook and 48 other companies) 03:16 - Joining Five9 after Facebook04:09 - Leading acquisition of Whendu and Virtual Observer06:55 - Five9’s future plans with over $400 million ARR and becoming a Decacorn soon09:42 - Working in India with Airtel, Snapdeal & Freecharge (from 2013-16)13:12 - 50+ portfolio companies as an Angel Investor - Khatabook, MoEngage, Innov8 etc.16:56 - Investing in Rupeek - Building a customer-friendly product in a market with very low NPS19:32 - Investing in Nobroker - Solving rental issues on consumers21:16 - Investing in MoEngage - Solving the user engagement marketing needs with SaaS23:00 - Exits from Fynd & Innov8 - More of a founder & team bet, than a market bet!28:37 - Failures Startups face - Cash burn without Product-market fit & Lack of team chemistry36:50 - Covid-19 crisis - Not just conserving cash but creating solutions to tackle it38:16 - Working & learning with Marissa Mayer (Yahoo), Mark Zuckerberg & Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Gopal Vittal (Bharti Airtel)44:15 - “The tools that people continue to pay for during a crisis are the ones which grow in the long run.”51:02 - His first principle of being an Investor -“You are not the Hero of the story, the founder is!” - Just be founder friendly53:01 - His second principle of being an Investor - ”You make your money with the success, but you make your reputation with the failures.” - Being with founders during their bad times54:30 - His third principle of being an Investor - Not to exit from a company, as soon as it breaks-out56:10 - In India would it make sense for Angel investors to Exit-early at a good valuation?

Pankaj joined Bertelsmann New York in 2009 and later started Bertelsmann Corporate Services India Pvt. Ltd and Bertelsmann India Investments.

Bertelsmann India Investments has several popular startups in its portfolio - Licious, Pepperfry, and Quikr among others.

In this podcast, Pankaj shares his opinions on how startups can optimize spendings and become more cash efficient in the long run.

Notes - 00:40 - Joining Bertelsmann in New York & starting Bertelsmann Corporate Services India02:33 - Thesis behind the diverse portfolio of Bertelsmann India Investments07:02 - Exit from Saavn which is now JioSaavn11:02 - What change can startups expect in consumer behaviour post Covid-19?14:45 - Biggest value addition which Bertelsmann brings to its portfolio companies20:20 - Average ticket size & ideal phase for making an investment at BII21:12 - Personal habits and hobbies which he attributes to his success23:35 - Ability to see far & deep and implementing future prospects within the business26:30 - Investing companies which raise minimum capital and are able to build great businesses28:58 - Identifying companies with high profit margins(Treebo as an example)29:59 - Advice to entrepreneurs to sail through Covid-19 crisis

Coming from a Tech-background Mekin spent his early career at Yahoo, Ugenie, Lulu.com, and Flipkart.

Since 2016, he has also been an Angel Investor investor and exited a few startups such as - UrbanClap, Vaahan, Tapchief, Quizziz & mGaadi.

In 2017 he started Udhyam, it focuses on nurturing and guiding students to become future entrepreneurs at the school level.

In 2018, he parallelly started Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship, referred to as GAME. As the name suggests, it aims to create 10M entrepreneurs (50% of women), who will create 50M jobs by 2030.

In this podcast, Mekin shares his opinions regarding the current situation of MSMEs and how Udhyam & GAME are moving towards their goals amid Covid-19 crisis.

Notes - 00:48 - Joining Flipkart and founding Udhyam02:52 - How does Udhyam stimulates and encourages young entrepreneurs?04:34 - How was GAME founded and what problem does it solve?06:14 - Enabling entrepreneurs who run a small business and employ 5-20 people12:53 - How are MSMEs affected by Covid-19?18:21 - Behavioural changes after the crisis20:45 - Opportunities which might emerge from the current scenario27:30 - How is Udhyam leveraging the current lockdown?36:02 - Advice to entrepreneurs to navigate through this crisis

Mark started Omnivore, an impact Venture Fund focused around Agritech back in 2010. Omnivore has so far invested in over 57 startups which are based on multiple verticals such as - B2B, B2C, Fresh-to-home & Rural Fintech.

Some of his Portfolio Companies are - Bijak, Stellapps, and DeHaat.

In this podcast, Mark shares his experiences & learnings of investing in Agritech Startups in India over the last decade.

After working at BCG for 2 years, Ishaan joined Sequoia India's Analyst Program in 2011. He spent around three and a half years at Sequoia India. He then went to business school and joined Sequoia India back in 2016.

In this podcast, Ishaan shares his experiences & learnings of investing in Consumer brands and Fintech Startups.

Notes - 00:42 - Joining Sequoia India's Analyst Program01:57 - Investing experiences over 9 years at Sequoia03:34 - Culture at Sequoia - “Singular focus on doing the right thing for all the stakeholders”.04:45 - “We help the daring entrepreneurs build from Idea to IPO & beyond”.06:23 - “While investing you never have the right or wrong answer”.09:29 - Macro-trends driving Consumer Brands in India11:05 - Financial Services in India are still unpenetrated12:21 - Mamaearth - Being a digital-first personal care brand for their consumers12:57 - Eruditus - Making Ivy league colleges more accessible15:18 - Fintech Startups in India leveraging large digital footprint of their customers to serve them better18:30 - Razorpay - Solving merchant payment issues with innovative solutions20:34 - Scope & Future of Neobanks in India across various customer segments28:37 - Challenges while investing from a large pool of amazing founders

Vaibhav has founded successful companies like Roamware (acquired by Audax Group) and Better Inc.

As a VC & a founder, he’s a core believer in implementing & experimenting with organic growth hacks to grow a company, this reflects in most of his portfolio companies as well.

Some of his Portfolio Companies are - Khatabook, OPEN Bank, Gramophone, and ShopKirana.

In this podcast, Vaibhav shares his experiences & learnings of investing in Startups which provide a simple but complete solution to a consumer problem.

Notes - 00:35 - His Journey from Founding Two Companies to Becoming a VC05:20 - Investing in 45 Companies in Last 2 Years07:02 - While making an Investment Decision it’s important not to Templatize a Founder’s Idea09:30 - Investing in Asia’s first Neobank - OPEN14:29 - Creating a product which completely solves a problem rather than offering a better way of dealing with it - Khatabook16:05 - Agritech Portfolio Companies - Gramophone, Jai Kisan, BharatAgri18:49 - Investing in a Truly AI-first company30:57 - How does Better helps its Portfolio Companies?

After completing his B.Tech. from IIT Delhi, Vidit worked with ITC & InMobi during his early career.

It was around 2015 when he decided to try out something and while exploring other options he came across this idea to create a platform (Meesho) where people could start & manage their business from the comfort of their home.

In this podcast, Vidit shares his experiences of building Meesho & understanding the core needs of their customers.

Notes - 00:40 - His career background and bringing an un-organized business online04:30 - Building 1st version of Meesho11:10 - Aggregating distributors on the platform12:50 - Making investors understand the new business model15:55 - What helped him keep growing while building a new business model?17:40 - Tackling the growth slowdown 6 months after raising capital from SAIF Partners26:25 - Listen or Die (Talking to users every 30 days)27:43 - Meesho’s revenue model29:30 - Current User Persona32:38 - Culture & DNA of Employees at Meesho35:55 - Change in Go to market strategy41:45 - Hiring strategy for Key Leadership roles48:50 - Irrespective of your growth don’t compromise with Culture Fit

After completing his MMS from BITS Pilani in 1993, Rahul entered into the Investment Banking domain.

From 1997 to 2006, he was part of Walden International as an Investment Manager. It was the first Silicon-Valley based VC Firm to come & establish a presence in India. This was when Rahul experienced Venture Capital & Angel Investing from a close perspective.

Later in 2006, he cofounded Helion Ventures with a $140M fund size, which has since then made over 135 investments across Finance, Healthcare, Logistics & Agri.

Some of the Portfolio companies are MakeMyTrip, Bigbasket, RailYatri, and Ezetap among others.

In this podcast, Rahul shares his experiences of finding & nurturing Indian entrepreneurs for the past 15 years.

Notes - 00:38 - Sharing his Journey via his book - The Moonshot Game: Adventures of an Indian Venture Capitalist03:10 - Working as an Investment Banker in 199509:05 - Cofounding Helion Ventures in 200622:10 - Starting multiple VC firms/funds from Helion25:15 - Traits of founders who build great companies28:22 - Three core reasons behind Investing in Bigbasket32:30 - Taking tough calls as a VC based on your experience38:50 - Giving synthesised advices as a VC vs a Canned-one44:44 - Starting Unitary Helion Fund45:17 - Building products for middle class by design & not by accident

After completing his graduation from IIT Bombay, Hemant worked at AMD during his early career.

In 2012, after completing his MBA from Cambridge University, he joined Google, where he worked in New Partnerships & Development for 5 years, post which he joined Andreessen Horowitz in 2017.

Lastly, after seeing a huge potential in the growing Indian Startup Ecosystem, he ended up moving to India in 2018 and joining Lightspeed India.

Some of Lightspeed India portfolio companies are Udaan, Darwinbox, OKCredit, and Shuttl among others.

In this podcast, Hemant shares his learnings of building a Tech company in India, he also shares his Venture Investing experiences in India & the US.

Notes - 00:46 - Growing up in Middle of Himalayas to joining Lightspeed India05:38 - Joining Corporate Development at Google after MBA06:26 - Choosing Lightspeed India vs any other VC firm in the US12:10 - Is it necessary to raise a Venture Capital to build a big company?15:38 - Is it the right time to build a Tech company in India?18:16 - Looking after Enterprise, Fintech & Logistics focused deals19:59 - Big wins for Lightspeed in India - Byju’s, OKCredit, Udaan, OYO25:25 - Difference b/w Venture Investing in US & India (Andreessen Horowitz vs Lightspeed)30:42 - What Indian Entrepreneurs can learn from their US counterparts?33:22 - “Most problems are solvable if you immerse yourself deep within”38:33 - Best Founders know much better about a Market than a VC

After completing his MBA from IIM Lucknow in 1998, Anand started his first EduTech company around the Dotcom boom - Brainvisa which became one of the largest eLearning companies in India and later on got acquired by Indecomm Global Services.

From 2007 to 2012, he backed several startups as an Angel Investor - Fasoos & MyDentist.

Later in his career in 2012, he became a Founding Partner at IndiaQuotient, Venture Capital Firm which has invested in over 50 startups in the last 8 years.

Some of his portfolio companies are LoanTap, Clip, and Sharechat among others.

In this podcast, Anand shares his understanding of the Indian Middle-class consumer & also shares his learnings on how can startups build products for them.

Notes - 00:35 - His Journey from Starting the first company in Dotcom boom to becoming a VC in 201201:50 - Experience with Early Portfolio Companies - Financial Services & Content09:00 - Understanding Indian consumers & building products for them16:55 - Investing in Indian Cosmetics Brand - Sugar20:50 - Serving the average Indian consumer with disposable income27:30 - Thesis behind building Indian Consumer Brands32:50 - Core Themes for future Portfolio companies at IndiaQuotient 38:50 - Portfolio Companies in Small Business Software - Vyapar, Fleetx, BharatAgri39:48 - Being bold & Taking Contrarian bets as a VC

Sameer’s journey in India’s venture capital ecosystem began back in 2007 when he joined Reliance Ventures, where he focused on early-stage investments in the Technology, Media / Entertainment & Telecommunications domain.

After being with Reliance for 4 years he joined Nexus Venture Partners in 2011 & currently leads their Bangalore office. At Nexus in the last 9 years, he has been part of the investment team that has lead investments in over 35 of their Portfolio companies.

In this podcast, Sameer shares his experiences of identifying top-notch founders & his signature style of signing the Term sheet in the first meeting with the founders in whom he sees potential.

Notes - 00:36 - From CFA Level-I to spending over 11 years in Venture Ecosystem07:48 - I’m very fond of what I do as VC10:50 - Investing in over 35 Portfolio Companies across - Business Services, Consumer Brands, Data & AI, Enterprise & Healthcare16:30 - Top 2 Portfolio Companies in every fund18:00 - Growth & Success of Postman and UnAcademy20:19 - Story behind signing term-sheet at UnAcademy27:11 - Size of Test Prep market in India28:48 - Investing in Postman right around its buyout stage33:37 - Signature style of getting Term-sheet signed & Investing then & there38:30 - Learnings from Mistakes as a VC41:05 - Identifying secular trends/shift in markets44:48 - Guiding founders in situations where they are able to raise $50M+ but haven’t had experience building big startups47:17 - Quality of founders is getting better & better51:55 - Low-value creation in several crappy companies in India01:01:20 - Low-key & Successful Portfolio Companies at Nexus Venture Partners01:04:50 - Being called a P/E VC Investor01:07:10 - Culture of hierarchy-free & openness at a VC firm

Sanjay started his career in Silicon Valley in 1992 & spent over 7 years at his first company, working in different roles across - Sales, Customer Support, Engineering & Marketing. He then worked with Xerox & Portal Software in US before coming back to India in 2003.

From 2003 to 2011, he had several experiences most of which revolutionized entire ecosystems they were part of, right from mCheck, ZipDial, Ezetap & Aadhar Team (at UIDAI).

Finally in 2011, he started Angel Prime (now Prime Ventures) which invests in early-stage entrepreneurs to build great companies.

Some of his portfolio companies are Moneytap, Ezetap, Happay, and Kredx among others.

In this podcast, Sanjay shares his experiences & learnings from being on both sides of the Startup ecosystem - An Entrepreneur & A VC.

Notes - 00:38 - His journey from a small town in Karnataka to Silicon Valley & finally becoming a VC04:04 - Part 1- Experience & Learnings in Silicon Valley (from working in Sales, Customer Support to Engineering)05:55 - Working with Xerox 08:40 - Coming back to India and working with mPortal & mChek11:20 - Realizing of being Ahead of Time at mChek 14:08 - Successful Startups which Controlled their Ecosystem like Paytm & those which rode the Ecosystem changes like PhonePe & GooglePay16:49 - Part 2 - Working with Aadhar (UIDAI Team) & Experiencing the formulation of Aadhar19:56 - Part 3 - Bringing together previous learnings & starting AngelPrime (currently Prime Ventures)22:51 - Conceptualizing ZipDial while being on a flight25:10 - Validating Market Fit in less than $100 at ZipDial28:45 - Building Ezetap - Being on the Merchant Side30:45 - Being the First Sculptor of the Company34:16 - Formulating Market Specific Preferences as a VC40:00 - Importance of being Honest & Open with your VC Partners44:57 - There’s No Completely 100% Right or Wrong situation being a VC47:59 - Being a Founder in Late 30s or 40s50:37 - Having 360 days of Frustration & 5 days of Glory as an Entrepreneur

In 2001, Sid founded Evolv, a vocational training company funded by Singapore Technologies. Over the next 6 years, he built it into a business that trained 20,000+ people annually across 200 cities in South Asia and the Middle East.

He later sold it to NIIT in 2007 but continued to lead the internal teams in adopting new technology as a transformative force in education and vocational training.

Post that, after being associated with GSF India for about a year, he Cofounded Lightbox Ventures in 2014.

Some of his portfolio companies are Furlenco, Embibe, Dunzo, Cleartrip, and Bombay Shirt Company.

In this podcast, Sid shares his experience of helping Entrepreneurs solve & avoid mistakes in their Entrepreneurial Journey.

Notes - 00:36 - His Journey of helping Entrepreneurs Solve & Avoid Mistakes 01:58 - Invest in Few Companies at a time to understand them better04:03 - Top Exits from Fund-II07:34 - Building relationships with Portfolio Companies10:40 - What kind of businesses is Lightbox trying to promote?18:39 - Investing in Embibe based on the Aditi’s conviction as a Founder22:54 - Investing in Furlenco after getting to know Ajith Karimpana In & Out26:34 - Challenges in building a subscription model in India for Furniture35:42 - Thesis behind recent Investment in Nua 39:18 - Advice to Entrepreneurs while Pitching to VCs